After two days of gloom, China was back on the winning rails on Thursday with Liu Chunhong winning a weightlifting title on her record-shattering binge and its shuttlers contributing two golds in the cliff-hanging finals.

The United States cashed in on the last event of the day, the women's gymnastics all-around, won by Carly Patterson at night, to overtake five-day leader China at the top of the medal standings.

Patterson totaled 38.387 points, beating Russian Svetlana Khorkina to second in 38.211, with Chinese Zhang Nan taking the bronze in 38.049.

With 14 golds apiece, the United States has 35 medals against China's 29, but China is expected to snatch back the lead on Friday when the country has gold chance in women's archery, cycling, fencing, judo and table tennis.

Japan keeps its third place with nine golds including six from judo while Australia is fourth on seven including five swim golds.

Chinese lifter Liu bettered three world records en route to lifting the women's 63kg gold with a total of 275kg, a jaw-dropping 12.5kg over runner-up Eszter Krutzler of Hungary.

The 21-year-old crushed the field with world record lifts of 122.5kg in the snatch and 153kg in the clean and jerk for a world record total of 275kg, giving China its fourth weightlifting gold in Athens.

After losing all the three men in singles and the women's top seed on Wednesday, the Chinese badminton team rebounded with two titles.

World champion Zhang Ning won China's first badminton gold with a gutsy comeback win over Mia Audina of the Netherlands.

With one set down, the tenacious Zhang virtually worn out the Indonesian-born rival and clinched the thrilling women's singles final 8-11, 11-6, 11-7.

She hurled her racket into the air after the last point and threw herself into the arms of head coach Li Yongbo.

"I'm 29 and I have been waiting for this moment too long," said a teary Zhang.

Defending champions Zhang Jun and Gao Ling overcame mid-match setbacks to beat British duo Jonas Rasmussen and Rikke Olsen 15-1, 12-15, 15-12 for the mixed doubles crown.

"Our hard work paid off today," said an emotional Li Yongbo, who apologized to Chinese reporters on Wednesday after the fall of several Chinese seeds.

The United States wrapped up the day with four gold medals, including three in swimming, with Aaron Peirsol's most dramatic.

Peirsol and Austrian Markus Rogan had both been through an emotional spectrum, yet in different direction.

The American world record holder touched home first in 1:57.35 in the men's 200m backstroke final, but minutes later he was told he was disqualified for an illegal turn and the gold was awarded to the Austrian. After a successful appeal, he was reinstated as the winner and Rogan returned to his second place with Romania's Razvan Florea taking bronze.

U.S. phenom Michael Phelps won his fourth gold in Athens with an easy victory in the 200m individual medley.

Phelps, now fighting for a record eight medals after his seven-gold dream ended, splashed home in an Olympic record one minute 57.14 seconds.

Earlier American Amanda Beard won the women's 200m breaststroke in 2:23.37, outside her world record of 2:22.44.

In a duel of swimming powers, Australia went down 1-3 for the day as Jodie Henry claimed the women's 100m freestyle final.

Henry won the sprint in 53.84 seconds, beating Dutch defending champion Inge de Bruijn and American Natalie Coughlin.

France finally got its first Olympic men's fencing gold when they beat Italy 45-42 in the team sabre final.

Yet Italy still had something to celebrate for when Marco Galiazzo nipped Japanese Hiroshi Yamamoto to grab the men's individual archery title.

In an event that also needs sharpness and strong nerves, Germany's Manfred Kurzer broke the world record for the qualification round of the men's 10m running target en route to the top podium.

Kurzer scored 590 points in the qualification round to shatter the previous best of 588 set by Russian Igor Kolesov in 2002.

Diana Igaly won Hungary's first shooting gold, crowned at the women's skeet.

On judo mat, Japan proved to be the world No. 1 power as world champion Noriko Anno overcame Chinese Liu Xia by ippon to claim the women's 78kg gold, the country's six in the sport.

Ihar Makarau from Belarus nabbed the men's 100kg title after subduing South Korean Jang Sung-ho.

Weightlifter Taner Sagir won Turkey's second gold as he heaved a winning total of 375kg in the men's 77kg division. Two-time champion Zhan Xugang of China failed in the three snatch attempts for a "no-lift" and shed bitter tears off the stage.